tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90681294344375985342024-03-13T14:23:41.142-07:00Life Inside The BoxKathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.comBlogger830125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-38957001867357456812023-06-30T10:11:00.001-07:002023-07-01T15:11:52.609-07:00Getting Carded<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_4KPpycgyA-J93-M6KyRedE39KtlnAZ_MXyPxTJgs0C4Rt3lGnO-NUofXj08LgvMRZNyENML21eHC-shLNaLuoiVSragJT4rUeOuQBmAO3DYGqZfgti4O45PJWQ_DSICZkC-q04pUKSkgi_Izh9HfZQ7urXO1D0J3fKT2lklnrhGt3jJxvwyg6VkAs_6/s2942/IMG_7186.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1286" data-original-width="2942" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_4KPpycgyA-J93-M6KyRedE39KtlnAZ_MXyPxTJgs0C4Rt3lGnO-NUofXj08LgvMRZNyENML21eHC-shLNaLuoiVSragJT4rUeOuQBmAO3DYGqZfgti4O45PJWQ_DSICZkC-q04pUKSkgi_Izh9HfZQ7urXO1D0J3fKT2lklnrhGt3jJxvwyg6VkAs_6/s320/IMG_7186.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"Sometimes things are just hard..." wrote my prayer team member to me in a text less than an hour ago. Truer words were never spoken.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This will be our 15th year to do a large community packing party, and I have always felt bad that we didn't have a letter to include in each box. We hear so often from shoebox recipients of how they are blessed by having a letter and picture from the person who packed their box. It seems to give them a connection and feeling of being loved by someone they've never met. Since we pack thousands of boxes, handwritten notes aren't possible, and in past years I've hesitated to spend the money that could be spent on shoebox contents and shipping donations to invest in letters.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This year, though, I had a stronger feeling than ever before that this was important. I investigated both online printing options and a local company and found the online company to be about half the cost. As further confirmation, one of my team members offered to split the cost with me, and the plan to order 25,000 postcards with a picture on one side and a simple printed greeting on the other was finalized.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then...we had to make plans for a picture. A key team member was on a mission trip until Wednesday of this week, and we had a promo code for 20% off with the online printing company that ended on Friday. Thursday was our only opportunity to get this shot. I sent out a few emails and invited team members to join us at Presque Isle, our local state park on Lake Erie. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We recruited an amateur photographer, God blessed us with perfect weather, and we had the shots completed in short order last night. That was the easy part.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I liked the photo pictured here, but this is a cropped version. The original had more scenery around it, so I cropped it out. Because I'm so techno-deficient, I didn't realize that would mess with the resolution of the photo. I struggled for hours last evening to figure out how to get this picture uploaded into the printing company's site and finally got it done at 2:30 am. As my friend said, "Sometimes things are just hard."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then this morning I got an email from the printing company telling me the photo was small and blurry and asking for the original photo. I replied and attached what I thought was the original, but the very patient Michael from Blockbuster Printing responded promptly (and kindly) to tell me it was the same exact photo. Could I please get an original with better resolution? As I said, "Sometimes things are just hard."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I contacted the photographer who was kind enough to promptly send me the original, and I forwarded it to Michael along with an apology and an explanation of how we were including these in our Operation Christmas Child boxes. I also sent a few desperate texts to our prayer team asking for prayer over this.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Maybe it's just that I've had a couple of nights with only a few hours of sleep that made me a bit overemotional, but I teared up when I read Michael's reply, "Perfection, this one is great. I will size correctly for you and send to print. These will be done by next week. Thank you so much again and best of luck on your generous efforts. We hope all goes well for you. We are rooting for you! Keep up that wonderful spirit, Kathy and happy 4th of July as well." Wow!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I wrote back to Michael and explained how he was an answer to prayer and told him how much his patience, kindness, and encouragement meant to me today. Maybe we both needed a little encouragement, because, after all, "Sometimes things are just hard."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But, by God's grace, our boxes will have cards with a picture and encouraging message in them this year. And, though sometimes things are just hard, they are also worth the effort. Getting carded was worth it. </div><p></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-84772940779424435672023-04-30T13:48:00.002-07:002023-04-30T13:48:54.647-07:00Let It Undo You<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjWdk9IgOt_b95eJjxAkqmaRPauh34R3JQL25P96dMUU1xOuw6gMbUohFx1u_EKo9hQ-dwn-9KXN9vVmQTaZCa3uZeJg3yvA9nCPO2NO8XZ3IaASWQgdhYPMU4DUMXVp0__5JdAErusVLqsCWIPhdv6zVIZAgEHgnpGf0u4ipOyjKaRh-iCVOZ7mhWww/s274/6FAD89AA-8BD0-49A8-BB9C-81D10AB9CDDB_4_5005_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="206" data-original-width="274" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjWdk9IgOt_b95eJjxAkqmaRPauh34R3JQL25P96dMUU1xOuw6gMbUohFx1u_EKo9hQ-dwn-9KXN9vVmQTaZCa3uZeJg3yvA9nCPO2NO8XZ3IaASWQgdhYPMU4DUMXVp0__5JdAErusVLqsCWIPhdv6zVIZAgEHgnpGf0u4ipOyjKaRh-iCVOZ7mhWww/s1600/6FAD89AA-8BD0-49A8-BB9C-81D10AB9CDDB_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="274" /></a></div><p></p><p>In today's sermon about God's love as expressed by Paul in Romans 8:35-39, Pastor Derek said our response to the matchless love of God should be to "Let it undo you!" </p><p>So I am breaking 8 months of blogging silence to record some of the ways I am undone by His love today.</p><p>I've been convicted over the past year or two of my lack of intentionality in observing a Sabbath. Unfortunately, I haven't acted on that conviction in any regular way, but yesterday I felt compelled to get all the piles of stuffed animals off the living room floor and all the stacks of shoebox clothing stored so I could really rest on this Sunday. What a difference it made to wake up and see my freshly vacuumed living room floor sans those piles!</p><p>As I searched this Sabbath afternoon for ways to recount manifestations of God's love for me, I grabbed a journal from my bookshelf that I wrote in 2008-2009. A few hours of reading the lines I wrote in the early morning hours of the days that year gave me lots of revelations.</p><p>It was a year of transition as we left the church I attended for 56 years and looked for a new church home. I recorded how I continued going back to that church basement and packing shoeboxes and how God allowed me to finish 7,272 boxes that year with the help of our OCC team and friends. I had no idea what the future would hold; on 11/19/08 I wrote, "I don't know if we'll ever pack that many again, but I praise You, God, for all these gospel opportunities that You've provided."</p><p>Day after day and week after week I recorded all my angst--my besetting sins of overeating and procrastination and irritability, and my inability to use my time as wisely as I wanted to for the Lord. And I realized in many ways those journal entries of 14 years ago mirror my current journal writings. I still struggle with the same sins; I still have much of the same angst. But God hasn't changed, and for some unfathomable reason He is still in love with me. Tears fill my eyes this moment as I think about it. </p><p>Some things have changed, though. As I read my thoughts from 14 years ago I see I was concerned about spending too much money on shoeboxes, yet it was only a fraction of what God's provided for me to spend now. I wondered if we'd ever be able to pack as many boxes ever again as we packed in 2008...and now we regularly pack more than three times that many! </p><p>I've been thinking lately about how tired I feel, but I see from this journal that I constantly complained 14 years ago about being tired. I hope this means that in 2037, if the Lord tarries, I'll still be complaining about being tired but also still carrying on by God's grace and with all the help He gives to get His will done--whatever that is in 2037. I'm not sure I'll ever be as positive as cheery Caleb of the Old Testament who insisted he was as strong at age 80 as he was 40 years earlier, because positivity has never been my strength, but who knows? God may do that miracle, too. </p><p>I'm definitely taking this day off from making decisions, but in the next two days we'll be finalizing dates and preliminary details for our 2023 big shoebox packing party. In addition to perusing old journals today I've been looking over lists of all the items God's given us over these years since our first large packing party in 2009. I'll tell you, it's astounding.</p><p>On 7/08/09 I had a phone call with Joey White from OCC, and he asked if we'd consider doing a special large packing party. I had no experience, but the church I'd then recently started attending came around me to get that job done. God knew I needed that support! He worked out every detail and only 10 weeks later, on 9/26/09, we had 150 volunteers who got 5,577 boxes packed in under four hours. Only God! </p><p>Year by year He keeps extending His grace over every roadblock to make this happen. Lord willing, this will be our 15th packing party, and we've packed over 304,000 more boxes since I wrote that journal in 2008. I stand amazed at what He does every year. </p><p>Sometimes I just need to sit back. And breathe. And remember. And let it undo me. </p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-27551418329815312572022-09-12T04:02:00.000-07:002022-09-12T04:02:26.218-07:00Ready For Action<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgz4y_XAfjrPVlAX3U-csBOlDjOAr9ZZExviDjF_yT4dJBYfR-75BazE9xSULUjZOEoddwFqY5gMAps5KN7RhZSpTO0mSAwM6V5wGoEfrhwKE3zt0fKLLxzbx1yGBRLWUoUXKMItMbypGl4xq4_UOMFZ3zJ9pwQbCNqLOY5LmctxXqf-8-IDqbd00yHjQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgz4y_XAfjrPVlAX3U-csBOlDjOAr9ZZExviDjF_yT4dJBYfR-75BazE9xSULUjZOEoddwFqY5gMAps5KN7RhZSpTO0mSAwM6V5wGoEfrhwKE3zt0fKLLxzbx1yGBRLWUoUXKMItMbypGl4xq4_UOMFZ3zJ9pwQbCNqLOY5LmctxXqf-8-IDqbd00yHjQ" width="320" /></a></div><br /> Round two! More loading and unloading of trucks. More tables set up. More prepping of items and arranging them on tables. And...we're ready to go again.<p></p><p>We worked hard on Friday and made stops at four different storage areas to get all our items to First Alliance Church. There was another neat way God saved us some work. By His grace I'd been in the container two weeks before and as God prompted me to take a count of washcloths and toothbrushes I realized we wouldn't have enough for all the boxes in this packing session. I was able to order more of each. The toothbrushes arrived promptly, but this week we still hadn't received the washcloths. On Thursday I communicated with the seller and found they'd been delivered to Birkmire (the trucking company where we rent our container) a week ago. On Friday when we were there to load our other items they were able to use the fork lift to bring them to us and we loaded the ones we need for this week and put the rest into the container for storage. It was great I didn't have to go up there earlier when they arrived and load them myself! ThankYou, Lord! </p><p>We organized and got things set up so by that evening we were ready for Aaron to pick up the slippers from the warehouse that was generously storing them. God provided just the right number of volunteers to get them unloaded and placed along the walls. Thank You, Lord!</p><p>But when I counted the cartons I realized we were short almost 1600 pairs of slippers. I had a sleepless night trying to figure out what happened. I wasn't at the warehouse when the slippers were loaded but I told them to leave 12 pallets of them behind in the warehouse. I was thinking there were 8 cartons on each pallet and didn't realize that this load had pallets with 12 or even more cartons on them! We figured this out and I was able to get a truck to go back to the warehouse and get 68 more cartons of slippers back to First Alliance. I'm so glad we didn't find that out during this week. Thank You, Lord! </p><p>So...we're ready for action! Bring on the volunteers and let the packing begin! </p><p><br /></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-9265798506474452512022-08-11T21:02:00.001-07:002022-08-11T21:02:24.341-07:00Packing Number One Is Done<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPEEAJlZPMkIu8G6xGiqMxqvbszz6f_IXAdE2kSeKwujd2W8q-RTrdPfGYwpEXbU3jeOCtmuPCvsl0rvougNTlrU_1CynDnUsIAZo2CVh9lzr7jI4nZtsBIQ-nCj0MD56zADNSOeZiSANZFYUSxE0iqfMMnPZ__nS1jD4vpmbFTHu1Bl25iuC3IOsS7w/s750/9B78907E-CC66-4D3C-A12B-499831894ED1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="750" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPEEAJlZPMkIu8G6xGiqMxqvbszz6f_IXAdE2kSeKwujd2W8q-RTrdPfGYwpEXbU3jeOCtmuPCvsl0rvougNTlrU_1CynDnUsIAZo2CVh9lzr7jI4nZtsBIQ-nCj0MD56zADNSOeZiSANZFYUSxE0iqfMMnPZ__nS1jD4vpmbFTHu1Bl25iuC3IOsS7w/s320/9B78907E-CC66-4D3C-A12B-499831894ED1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>After months of uncertainty, hundreds of decisions, and many hours of preparation our first 2022 shoebox packing session is done. Not including setup, we planned to be in the building for five days--four days to pack the boxes and one day for cleanup.</p><p>By God's grace and because of so many excellent volunteers we finished packing all 11,200 boxes in 2.5 days. We worked another half day on Wednesday to start cleanup and finished on Thursday morning.</p><p>It was a good week--not without some hitches, of course, but a blessed week nonetheless. We were glad to have children and families join us again and loved watching them work so well together. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYucqlxQg6L0mTSOFaUevm_F-2qY4rWUCr4-vJkIyh4yK8iVp6BWb40yeJx8PcA6_1bungS_3UFNGpMt-2AlhugvULYKUh5Xp7-Mzh0fG5XhRZY3jyAb1rO3A07mWyCNZ7AZD8IsH-hy1dW_MZKZf34g4-MfulA8pIjMYEqs3OL73cop8ASB7jtMmn6Q/s206/3BC55C0B-FAE4-491C-BCC4-E8EEF371BFD9_4_5005_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="206" data-original-width="155" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYucqlxQg6L0mTSOFaUevm_F-2qY4rWUCr4-vJkIyh4yK8iVp6BWb40yeJx8PcA6_1bungS_3UFNGpMt-2AlhugvULYKUh5Xp7-Mzh0fG5XhRZY3jyAb1rO3A07mWyCNZ7AZD8IsH-hy1dW_MZKZf34g4-MfulA8pIjMYEqs3OL73cop8ASB7jtMmn6Q/s1600/3BC55C0B-FAE4-491C-BCC4-E8EEF371BFD9_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="155" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp95DV0Ru_ySNoZ9fw0y11mF1dPC4z4SmGL16VauX6n-cHPSTODoXRqQkkwfUBA8iOk74hnlnnaMReTYDkVUK3JW1ivpEQzH5BzAd9hXAsDsSlE9d3XwviXavdQhxU91gHdspEXc2SufFWJgwspLc-EvTFMzHLsWpCvi7AfcKlaFm_nxENYNLKuqZUNA/s274/21EBEF60-7FBF-4B13-9474-DC6EA074281C_4_5005_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="274" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp95DV0Ru_ySNoZ9fw0y11mF1dPC4z4SmGL16VauX6n-cHPSTODoXRqQkkwfUBA8iOk74hnlnnaMReTYDkVUK3JW1ivpEQzH5BzAd9hXAsDsSlE9d3XwviXavdQhxU91gHdspEXc2SufFWJgwspLc-EvTFMzHLsWpCvi7AfcKlaFm_nxENYNLKuqZUNA/s1600/21EBEF60-7FBF-4B13-9474-DC6EA074281C_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="274" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUjs2nRwkGjxoeO2IpnvaWr0GmZTP9hk_-9rsf8p2BL88hW4TLNLDwdUV7HO6PlYmCgxs2M2rXs2cJ-vZL08lpFvsDotE1ZKU4U11zD2kA06U_MsbCyzBLGqb--3HkyjMGyigzqxDW5ryxaZAjhhq2fFPsCTEDdRHTjmBdETWVopKdvX3bhNkJRViQQ/s4032/F1635AF7-46BB-4E66-8CF8-4087F6A8CC86.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUjs2nRwkGjxoeO2IpnvaWr0GmZTP9hk_-9rsf8p2BL88hW4TLNLDwdUV7HO6PlYmCgxs2M2rXs2cJ-vZL08lpFvsDotE1ZKU4U11zD2kA06U_MsbCyzBLGqb--3HkyjMGyigzqxDW5ryxaZAjhhq2fFPsCTEDdRHTjmBdETWVopKdvX3bhNkJRViQQ/s320/F1635AF7-46BB-4E66-8CF8-4087F6A8CC86.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>I'm not sure how many cartons/boxes we had in the truck at the end of Monday night because a sudden storm came up and blew rain into the back of the truck so we had to quickly close it and pile cartons in the gym until Tuesday morning.</p><p>We did have that first truck filled and ready to pull by noon on Tuesday, though, and packed another 3400 after that to make a total of 9000 boxes by Tuesday night. The other 2,200 were filled on Wednesday by around 1:00 and the second truck was ready for its journey.</p><p>I want to praise God for so much answered prayer! We're grateful the high temperatures of Saturday and Monday (when we melted in the gym with no air conditioning) cooled off for Tuesday and Wednesday to make for much more pleasant packing. We could not have asked for a better and more flexible crew of volunteers to get this job done.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1qiXw-jq-7nq9np2z-za8WvbB7v9UG9ASyq6F5a4FaWyFcSiA4SAz7dTWLmFAi6gfbA4Uvqfguql9TbW7ikre-JmM8wKGDIySgTHRSt7VC9AxFRRGhk7NPhhVsowFBn0kGVnDA0_MOjpfVOWL6hzNpsoMTqmnw_yVF4dUiRIYIUuLkciJad8AX_0pA/s4032/22D56F17-B638-4BC2-AAF4-D9B121EA2632.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1qiXw-jq-7nq9np2z-za8WvbB7v9UG9ASyq6F5a4FaWyFcSiA4SAz7dTWLmFAi6gfbA4Uvqfguql9TbW7ikre-JmM8wKGDIySgTHRSt7VC9AxFRRGhk7NPhhVsowFBn0kGVnDA0_MOjpfVOWL6hzNpsoMTqmnw_yVF4dUiRIYIUuLkciJad8AX_0pA/s320/22D56F17-B638-4BC2-AAF4-D9B121EA2632.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt22AXoyWtrrjy8YTSObSbXRWTM1JbxabeUDWjAdyKEl7SCbupTKEj0TtG0ZfFJ7sMWrGfl68ZAXzLn_svUFUCTXaYQdEJzPTpSwtnNw2kR-4tp1PRO4chGpH7tmjhxsKtasvo7lnIJ6mii_kVflqnkksH5EzvXeiWD8F0Fxz_HPNv6XZpF1ekAtv-9w/s4032/AF028B4D-7528-4454-9CD6-F2D0163FD387.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt22AXoyWtrrjy8YTSObSbXRWTM1JbxabeUDWjAdyKEl7SCbupTKEj0TtG0ZfFJ7sMWrGfl68ZAXzLn_svUFUCTXaYQdEJzPTpSwtnNw2kR-4tp1PRO4chGpH7tmjhxsKtasvo7lnIJ6mii_kVflqnkksH5EzvXeiWD8F0Fxz_HPNv6XZpF1ekAtv-9w/s320/AF028B4D-7528-4454-9CD6-F2D0163FD387.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTkcOO3JJaG3vqgvcI5AV8Zs19NWUwrZX2FinsebUnOGuH0MfYEnOUnx4pPfZ9PZRQD85T9R5QvMiMlNuUHBHSef7NWmAmj3a24tn9WoMjbXTSQeMtrT6EVESS6CrRtRGf7vaHdVTvTE-CNhmbnY21m9ZOsblp_u4ONlBKmN8oIpuWm9JP2_yAOQR2VA/s228/DDBB72B4-7A4C-4595-B1FD-1BB53A16E687_4_5005_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="204" data-original-width="228" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTkcOO3JJaG3vqgvcI5AV8Zs19NWUwrZX2FinsebUnOGuH0MfYEnOUnx4pPfZ9PZRQD85T9R5QvMiMlNuUHBHSef7NWmAmj3a24tn9WoMjbXTSQeMtrT6EVESS6CrRtRGf7vaHdVTvTE-CNhmbnY21m9ZOsblp_u4ONlBKmN8oIpuWm9JP2_yAOQR2VA/s1600/DDBB72B4-7A4C-4595-B1FD-1BB53A16E687_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="228" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTtTgEHrYRCCyCATRtnmN11OjTm_jOgTwZ8-hqxMaZNvvcPvys0RgitpqtBsEe-0P7ShhHPd01HaMWAaUa9OZrqH4xf_E5EghAEfgmcN8Bu-aL5ou2XDuO7dx-aPRVhjO3OgaD1NeixISpk_NvWML4KYCFr7YkiO3wRvLSk5vf-Tk-iHcEGI2beophKg/s4032/EC331B71-7EAC-4EF7-BCA4-B3D4E81D454D.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTtTgEHrYRCCyCATRtnmN11OjTm_jOgTwZ8-hqxMaZNvvcPvys0RgitpqtBsEe-0P7ShhHPd01HaMWAaUa9OZrqH4xf_E5EghAEfgmcN8Bu-aL5ou2XDuO7dx-aPRVhjO3OgaD1NeixISpk_NvWML4KYCFr7YkiO3wRvLSk5vf-Tk-iHcEGI2beophKg/s320/EC331B71-7EAC-4EF7-BCA4-B3D4E81D454D.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Last year the stress of managing volunteers left me frankly burned out and I was reluctant to face another set of packing parties this year. But God answered that need too when Ellen stepped up to take point on orienting and placing volunteers who always seemed to drift in one by one right after she'd given an orientation at the beginning of a shift. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNncbQU1IKkjjJL7ZcFB5KLy6ZhB0kkoOruPVuG9R48G0FByOAGB13v_XENmvtzVi6Un9foon6OCkD08CEZc3KHdgEE1jdXyRGV7GibZy-MH47CKwT2wl3TMGSyysVvuD1l6ycKBa2xvHF3FBfsPfWyhCOOTAxvpORY-M2yf86Cz2xnLjtunXehn-2w/s224/03DD8AA6-75C2-4CA9-8AFC-1F3AAFBBA8A4_4_5005_c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="155" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNncbQU1IKkjjJL7ZcFB5KLy6ZhB0kkoOruPVuG9R48G0FByOAGB13v_XENmvtzVi6Un9foon6OCkD08CEZc3KHdgEE1jdXyRGV7GibZy-MH47CKwT2wl3TMGSyysVvuD1l6ycKBa2xvHF3FBfsPfWyhCOOTAxvpORY-M2yf86Cz2xnLjtunXehn-2w/s1600/03DD8AA6-75C2-4CA9-8AFC-1F3AAFBBA8A4_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="155" /></a></div><p>Having a larger facility was a true blessing. We had all our cartons, boxes, and supplies in the same area all at the same time. Granted, there was still a bit of chaos but people stepped up to break down all that cardboard when it was needed and pitched in to sweep up all those little pieces of red cardboard 'confetti' left from folding boxes and stock the tables at the end of every evening. </p><p>Three of us worked this morning to finish cleaning and storing and were amazed when First Alliance offered to allow us to leave the things we need to use again in September right there in the gym. Praise God! </p><p>Tonight I'm making calculations for September. I was a bit shocked to realize we still need another 165 reams of paper folded into packets of 15 sheets of paper each. I need to see if our paper folder Steve can complete that many in four weeks or we'll be farming that job out also. </p><p>Still, despite the conflicts and challenges, there are 11,200 boxes on their way to Charlotte for the next leg of the journey. One down and only one more to go. </p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-68573776147624777902022-08-07T15:27:00.001-07:002022-08-07T16:15:34.064-07:00It's A Setup<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsdW0YprEwoZs8_NHDHC48BtvOiAPuPcXNsemhK8WRPJuUHMz-uqgPdp5-zqqcQQ-2ORae-jqNv283IqkupRTDww8ElwsSHX1S_Zl9lhhgZL74omSqbLk8jCmTn5yw_CdR7KhGMc5VrnX_ouleo2k39HZYMK96l2fmjHOS8FUSRarNc9u-vTsXfpsug/s4032/DAD4F390-3189-4BFA-9417-BEACDD2DEB73.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsdW0YprEwoZs8_NHDHC48BtvOiAPuPcXNsemhK8WRPJuUHMz-uqgPdp5-zqqcQQ-2ORae-jqNv283IqkupRTDww8ElwsSHX1S_Zl9lhhgZL74omSqbLk8jCmTn5yw_CdR7KhGMc5VrnX_ouleo2k39HZYMK96l2fmjHOS8FUSRarNc9u-vTsXfpsug/s320/DAD4F390-3189-4BFA-9417-BEACDD2DEB73.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p>Here we are again on Packing Party Eve. It's been a long road this year with lots of prayer and soul searching about whether we should even attempt to do a packing party this year. Just six months ago we had very few anchor items and no prospects for buying them on the horizon. Between that and some personal problems caused by my own sinful nature it seemed last year's 13th packing party might be the last.<p></p><p>Then in early February at our Area Coordinators' Planning Meeting we were singing "Oceans" during worship and I had an impression that we should not only have a packing party this year but we should pack 19,000 boxes. I still don't know if that will happen but God is getting us closer.</p><p>In the past six months God provided a new venue, more than 30,000 beautiful "Wow" items for boxes and another 37,000 stuffed animals. And while my personal sin problems won't be solved this side of heaven, I've recognized them, tried to confess them, and asked for prayer from everyone I can think of. </p><p>I'd be lying if I said I am totally confident we will get to the end of this packing week with two trucks filled with packed shoe boxes and that I caused no offense to anyone. </p><p>If anything the battle just keeps getting stronger. We have one packing party team member and her family totally out because of illness and one who has faithfully loaded our trucks for years is recovering from surgery and cannot lift. Because of work schedules and other issues we are down to a few team members who can manage volunteers, stock tables, load the truck, and keep up with cardboard disposal. </p><p>But God has a habit of bringing unlikely people to come alongside us in unlikely ways. I hope I'll be telling you about some of them in my next 'victory' posts.</p><p>Meanwhile, because of the tireless work of some non-team volunteers yesterday all 8,000 baseball hats are out of their boxes. And...well...I'd say we have quite a few folded boxes ready to pack!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJNtISF58IBccSW2srSEThbTMZSPqSQd9p4-BZQt-aKRk9Jp07hD6Og-g_d1qoYhAXz3ZeNbvfF_d624qLYd-e0nxf-m-UMsgTFxnP7go4XCCPleCDbZUrCWSq64rhYClZV8Zm8MrbaN8P0bc-bJL5Cyun5papKE78w6TlBaZjaL2UPrKFOzDMomKgcA/s4032/5A070DE2-CEDB-420C-BE7A-F67C374DE4A5.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJNtISF58IBccSW2srSEThbTMZSPqSQd9p4-BZQt-aKRk9Jp07hD6Og-g_d1qoYhAXz3ZeNbvfF_d624qLYd-e0nxf-m-UMsgTFxnP7go4XCCPleCDbZUrCWSq64rhYClZV8Zm8MrbaN8P0bc-bJL5Cyun5papKE78w6TlBaZjaL2UPrKFOzDMomKgcA/s320/5A070DE2-CEDB-420C-BE7A-F67C374DE4A5.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrQg4MMHpUtnqv0bObt3IQWlL_5uzZ2tzY0Z85E7IonTsptDEaw5gi_YbDbHku4zYTmY-UiFBxz5qobz0NUV4hZvNGk6KBS3cgbrLEF_IswRh3ZT0PrA-pE_Lu2f_omlV7HQzDC0nCKjo6meYeRTkiXABPMKQ0Ep1bSLncGctcepHdB0dLNVbbLlq5eA/s4032/80E71187-9320-4D24-A91D-CCA8293E7B79.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrQg4MMHpUtnqv0bObt3IQWlL_5uzZ2tzY0Z85E7IonTsptDEaw5gi_YbDbHku4zYTmY-UiFBxz5qobz0NUV4hZvNGk6KBS3cgbrLEF_IswRh3ZT0PrA-pE_Lu2f_omlV7HQzDC0nCKjo6meYeRTkiXABPMKQ0Ep1bSLncGctcepHdB0dLNVbbLlq5eA/s320/80E71187-9320-4D24-A91D-CCA8293E7B79.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRaESy4MuREkV9DkBOtOu2a9xChuMUbSGZy07vxxjwXwpTEsHmrE6oe_VyQKYMvJlx6qOXOH6pfaqZVVxhwN_XnivfaqDLzWw7VXzqIATTc25Ro3WUh-h5GDNLsRXD69Z2YhPrnoEi3xHdesPP7Wkajh-HdPO4GgKci2fcn_-dG8f7ZZ1ONAxTPd7YaA/s4032/540FCEAF-6959-4BAE-B5FE-0B94D513E79C.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRaESy4MuREkV9DkBOtOu2a9xChuMUbSGZy07vxxjwXwpTEsHmrE6oe_VyQKYMvJlx6qOXOH6pfaqZVVxhwN_XnivfaqDLzWw7VXzqIATTc25Ro3WUh-h5GDNLsRXD69Z2YhPrnoEi3xHdesPP7Wkajh-HdPO4GgKci2fcn_-dG8f7ZZ1ONAxTPd7YaA/s320/540FCEAF-6959-4BAE-B5FE-0B94D513E79C.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-9187719560652947302022-08-07T13:33:00.000-07:002022-08-07T13:33:47.946-07:00Catching Up<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitQMtQgeVlYnnXfXm2VCAPaismbU7ENyirNKNi4HfrLv7kkVivzgMklJ6xqOLEu2X8pniFqcClvkPKXZmIiKGB0MYF0zc8FyVj97owB1heCtNNyHqUfLIRl-IYojZ1s5VKoERy4vbqUnEf2J4y65nFkoyPADD1YFef9r7Z0kmrLveJe-PGFGdWlPA2oA/s4032/4C3B48FE-0FD1-4FF4-81F4-6E90474ADC59.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitQMtQgeVlYnnXfXm2VCAPaismbU7ENyirNKNi4HfrLv7kkVivzgMklJ6xqOLEu2X8pniFqcClvkPKXZmIiKGB0MYF0zc8FyVj97owB1heCtNNyHqUfLIRl-IYojZ1s5VKoERy4vbqUnEf2J4y65nFkoyPADD1YFef9r7Z0kmrLveJe-PGFGdWlPA2oA/s320/4C3B48FE-0FD1-4FF4-81F4-6E90474ADC59.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>Writing. I haven't done it for some time. At least not on this blog. And tomorrow begins our official packing for 2022, so I thought I should catch up a bit on all the ways Jehovah Jireh has answered our prayers over the past three months or so.</p><p>First, the facility at Grace Church where we hosted our community-wide packing party since 2009 is constructing a video production studio in the area we used to use for packing boxes. By God's grace, at the end of April we were able to secure a new venue at First Alliance Church. This provides a larger space for us and the church was so accommodating in clearing their calendar for us to use their large gym. Unfortunately, it's not air conditioned so we're praying for cooler weather this coming week.</p><p>Then, on May 2nd, we received a truckload of items for our boxes. As always, we prayed hard about all the details of this delivery. This was the culmination of five months of steps orchestrated by our merciful God and brought us 19,000+ baseball hats, over 1,500 pairs of children's character slippers, and 6 pallets of miscellaneous fillers. Those pallets of fillers were a gamble but God provided over 2,000 stuffed animals as well as many fun toys on them. </p><p>At the beginning of June God blessed us with the opportunity to buy more than 12,000 more pairs of children's slippers. That's more than we need for this year, but we didn't want to pass up the opportunity. We weren't sure how to get them shipped but ultimately Logistics Plus, a local shipping company, arranged the shipping for us at their cost and that saved us money in this crazy economy with gas prices soaring. </p><p>We also weren't sure where we could store this latest truckload of slippers. Thank You, Lord, for providing the Danowskis to offer us space in their newly rented warehouse. I was out of town with our ministry coordinators at Operation Christmas Child recruitment training when the truck arrived on 6/18/22 but there were enough volunteers to get the job done and God even provided a man with a fork lift to unload the truck. A couple weeks later we needed to move the 9 pallets of large plush bunnies from that warehouse. I didn't know where we would put them so I put out a plea on Facebook and God provided what we needed! </p><p>We were still praying for about 7,000-8,000 more stuffed animals for this year. God did "exceedingly, abundantly beyond", though, and Ellen found a contact to buy 27,000 from a man in Ohio who was selling the Beanie Baby collection amassed by his 90-year-old father who died this past May. Going to pick them up was quite an adventure, but God worked out the details. Four team members helped finance the $10,000 cash purchase plus another $1000 to pay for renting a truck to transport them. Now we have more than we need for this year and will have to move them again to another storage spot once this year's packing is done. It seems God is preparing us for 2023 packing already. </p><p>And here we are just a few weeks later getting ready to start this year's packing. Two days ago we received our shipment of cartons and boxes to get ready for attempting to pack 11,200 boxes to fill two trucks. We prayed much over the delivery and God blessed us as the truck driver used his pallet jack to pull the pallets into the gym for us. Later that day we took a borrowed truck to pick up stuffed animals from storage. </p><p>Yesterday we had to load and unload two large trucks full of items from our main storage container and another team member's basement. God provided the trucks, the volunteers, and a DRY (though hot!) day for the job. By 3:00 yesterday afternoon we had the gym set up and ready to pack--the earliest we've done this for the past three years. </p><p>Today we're enjoying a sabbath and praising God for a busy three months that brought us to the brink of another packing adventure. Tomorrow we start and trust God to do it AGAIN! </p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-69011443435422235222022-04-23T07:13:00.000-07:002022-04-23T07:13:19.517-07:00Red Sea Deliverance<p> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGCc9QTr5O-dFAL9GWlSo16mu6KomUshOBYpW0dOx_8US3ntZelhTDt4eqkras2C7CgwUSH86l4OIxKJjG0VA7oUgOur6tG9198J8O_itkKIL0JjEqwtqLQELJzQEWDWXnuumc1Ukw7JVuKGMP2ixc7L-Xh8IftP3L8zzEa4-SvuU21z7Z0UENEY8kkA/s4032/IMG_6719.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGCc9QTr5O-dFAL9GWlSo16mu6KomUshOBYpW0dOx_8US3ntZelhTDt4eqkras2C7CgwUSH86l4OIxKJjG0VA7oUgOur6tG9198J8O_itkKIL0JjEqwtqLQELJzQEWDWXnuumc1Ukw7JVuKGMP2ixc7L-Xh8IftP3L8zzEa4-SvuU21z7Z0UENEY8kkA/w320-h241/IMG_6719.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Did you ever go through a period of pull and tug that feels like a bit of a Red Sea experience? Our packing party team has had months of this. I can't even explain all the ways that I, for one, have felt confusion and a lack of discernment since last summer about whether God even wanted us to continue packing large numbers of boxes. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This feeling isn't anything new, really, I guess. This is a hard task and every year I wonder whether God is telling us it's time to end it. This year, though, has been especially hard. We found out last year we'd be losing much of the space we've used for packing since we began these packing parties in 2009.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then, last fall, we lost storage containers and went from three down to one. At the same time we lost alternate basement storage space, too. And last year's packing sessions had depleted our team in so many ways. Were we too exhausted and too old to do this again? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Still, I think each person on our team kept thinking of the children who receive these shoeboxes. We know each box means one more child and his/her family will have an opportunity to hear of God's love. So, we've continued moving forward step by step. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This morning I read again the story of the crossing of the Red Sea--that amazing deliverance of God's people. Don't we all long for that kind of deliverance? We want to see God come through for us in inexplicable but tangible ways. And...He does!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The past few days have been nothing short of amazing. My husband and I went to meet with the staff at another nearby church about the possibility of using their large gym to pack our boxes this year and they were so welcoming and accommodating. It sounds dramatic but it was honestly a bit like watching the Red Sea part.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We also got several donations of stuffed animals over the last few days. It's just encouraging to see God provide like that. And by God's grace we're awaiting a shipment of items for packing this year's boxes even as we trust God for the 10,000 stuffed animals and additional fillers we need to round them out. We're not through the Red Sea yet but we're following Him.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I just re-read something I wrote last year on this day when I read the same passage in Exodus about the Red Sea and wanted to record it here to save it:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Steps When You Face A Red Sea:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1) Settle down (don't fear!)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2) Stand by (wait expectantly)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">3) Stay silent but go forward (let God fight for you)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">4) Stretch out your staff (act when God tells you to)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">5) See salvation (watch for deliverance)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">6) Serve the Savior (rejoice in His salvation) </div><p></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-66564928290891085862022-04-16T12:11:00.002-07:002022-04-16T12:13:30.025-07:00Making Space<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiu3WpVKV-lXfjR510NaSq4GP5eXDGc1Jqgj6ZgFAap9s39z3mnV0NPkI8HgL4U8X928JC-3xNvM0DNqySlIbFQ1NLPc2iLJDiAdJi1mRFq-t_ZXliIxTEap2bD7ycSSrW3BjqAmS0RUVFPmMSqlpbExZ5aLVeqZLiDXCkzeyqtxxvLxKZ1W_xa57QMFQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiu3WpVKV-lXfjR510NaSq4GP5eXDGc1Jqgj6ZgFAap9s39z3mnV0NPkI8HgL4U8X928JC-3xNvM0DNqySlIbFQ1NLPc2iLJDiAdJi1mRFq-t_ZXliIxTEap2bD7ycSSrW3BjqAmS0RUVFPmMSqlpbExZ5aLVeqZLiDXCkzeyqtxxvLxKZ1W_xa57QMFQ" width="180" /></a></div><p></p><p>Does anyone else feel like life involves constantly making space? In a spiritual sense I've been struggling lately to move out sinful attitudes and bitterness to make space to love others and abide in Jesus. It's a never-ending battle I've been fighting all my life. Even with the Holy Spirit working in me I can never seem to make space the way I should. I'm so glad Paul wrote in Romans 7:15 "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." It gives me hope to hear him say he struggled too.</p><p>And in a packing party sense we were making space today in our storage container. We know we have to use every square centimeter of that space as wisely as possible so today five of us worked to get the things we know we won't need until later to the back end of the container and the things we may need sooner to the front. After two hours it looks so much better, we have a schematic in hand to remind us of what is where, and I feel relief. </p><p>Back in the days when we did one large packing party and unloaded the container all at the same time it didn't make so much difference. Now, though, we're pretty sure we're doing a week of packing in August and another week in September so we don't want to have to unload it all and repack it. The fact that our storage is miles away from our anticipated packing venue makes it even trickier. </p><p>Speaking of venue, we finally got our shipping window dates so we can begin to make plans. It doesn't help that we got those right before Easter when it's tough to make any connections with church staff, but we had a team meeting yesterday and made some decisions so today I'm going to craft emails and try to get some meetings set up. </p><p>The main reason we had to get that storage unit ready for service is that God gave us favor and allowed us to make that large order of tens of thousands of shoebox items (probably 36 pallets of them) at great prices. We're not home yet. We still need to pray in another 10,000 stuffed animals and some other fillers but we have many of the basic items. It's possible we could fill four trucks IF we get a venue and can recruit enough volunteers to pack. </p><p>Meanwhile, I'm still praying God will help me make space to store what I need to store and clean out what I need to clean out--both physically and spiritually. Neverending effort for sure. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-30777233313612693332022-04-02T04:13:00.000-07:002022-04-02T04:13:36.369-07:00Working It Out<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiP57BQFnXIaNO5kAJ0TXd2MNKlArVyZljuqGQ78zidHmmtbFrU4n_9lmtbkS_agnNX1jt34ZFzNgxk7KSG0XWoFH48614ZD2EKnyobvQb7rIcYIuGJolHsZSmO6S-vXqefkRS_Z9GjishMF7_uMrE8d4Ik4Bol2imeK-VSzCybvKTIYBdsv5cEmPbW3Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiP57BQFnXIaNO5kAJ0TXd2MNKlArVyZljuqGQ78zidHmmtbFrU4n_9lmtbkS_agnNX1jt34ZFzNgxk7KSG0XWoFH48614ZD2EKnyobvQb7rIcYIuGJolHsZSmO6S-vXqefkRS_Z9GjishMF7_uMrE8d4Ik4Bol2imeK-VSzCybvKTIYBdsv5cEmPbW3Q" width="320" /></a></div><br />There are still so many questions that need to be worked out about this year's shoebox packing and so many decisions that can't even be made. We're waiting to hear from Operation Christmas Child about the directives for this year and the shipping windows. We're waiting to hear from a major supplier about whether items we want to order are available at a price we can afford. We're doing a lot of waiting.<p></p><p>But while we're waiting God is blessing us in increments we can handle. Last week it was the paper donation. Then yesterday I picked up a donation of new tote bags to include in our boxes. Yesterday I spent some time working on rolling them and securing them with rubber bands.</p><p>Working. I think of all the ways over the years God has worked to get the prep work done for our shoebox packing. Back in the early years we did it ALL in one Saturday event. We didn't fold boxes ahead of time. We didn't make up paper packets ahead of time. We didn't bag crayons ahead of time. Looking back, it seems crazy. But somehow it worked! We had hundreds of volunteers and we used most of the church building. In one room young Girl Scouts joined with older volunteers to count out and staple paper. In another room volunteers bagged crayons. And all over the church--even on the stage in the worship center--people were folding boxes. All this while lines of volunteers walked around filling those boxes. </p><p>Somehow, though, we found the wisdom of preparing in advance. I started taking boxes of crayons or paper to different individuals so they could work on them. I spent a lot of time trying to keep track of who had what and driving around town to deliver crayons or paper to people who needed more. Then one year we got a donation of jump rope handles and started making jump ropes. Now I was driving around town delivering jump rope handles and pieces of rope to volunteers who assembled them. I counted out the handles by the hundreds and paired them with equal numbers of rope lengths but there were still always calls that said, "I'm short two jump rope handles." Sigh.</p><p>When all that organization and driving around became too much we came up with the idea of having work days throughout the spring and summer. Volunteers would come to the church where we had supplies right there and all would work together to accomplish the paper stapling, crayon bagging, and jump rope making along with other assorted tasks. This worked well for the most part...until...</p><p>COVID</p><p>We still had a few smaller work days but with masking and social distancing and limited group sizes it became harder to pull these off. Most work days in the last two years involved just our small team working together so much work was still done in homes. </p><p>This brings us to 2022. We no longer have a donor for jump rope handles so we're not assembling ropes. We've found a few highly competent volunteers to fold paper and bag crayons. This assures higher quality and though we're still delivering supplies it's only to a few trusted people. </p><p>Now that pandemic restrictions are lifted some are wondering if we'll go back to having community work days. Our team hasn't made a final decision but the short answer is--probably, no. We no longer have storage at the church where we've packed the boxes all these years and we also don't have access to the area of the church where we held work days and packed boxes before. We could potentially use another area of the church or find another church to host work days, but our storage is now miles away. In order to do a simple task like sorting cups we need to transport the cups to the area where we're having the work day, sort the cups (a task that would probably only take a half hour with 15 people) and then transport all those cartons back to the storage container. Logistically it doesn't make sense. </p><p>So...how will we accomplish these tasks like sorting? I'm not sure yet. Maybe that prep work will be part of the packing week, like it was in the 'old days'. Or maybe a few people from the team will take things home and work on them ahead of time. </p><p>There's a lot we're still just working out. </p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-40940233921885166532022-03-26T05:20:00.001-07:002022-03-26T05:20:59.097-07:00Jireh You Are Enough<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgsisjtuzQuoS-eLD6LktxZ3J3NVeqNh_lGuBSA3vKEcGOp6quYYpTSpM2SxodfB5MrqczWzkSGnHuJN2B5PPWkrvVNcyAyFhhgB8GCbEGrrHfJLNhUdGYejB8Y9Itx0WXqEsdyt3NMnyn40ARRss8d24eGRazKSFz5dX3aJSDSacyG9V2MLPNTErYbow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgsisjtuzQuoS-eLD6LktxZ3J3NVeqNh_lGuBSA3vKEcGOp6quYYpTSpM2SxodfB5MrqczWzkSGnHuJN2B5PPWkrvVNcyAyFhhgB8GCbEGrrHfJLNhUdGYejB8Y9Itx0WXqEsdyt3NMnyn40ARRss8d24eGRazKSFz5dX3aJSDSacyG9V2MLPNTErYbow" width="180" /></a></div></div><br /> So...this blog has been dormant now for over eight months. That's just crazy. For the past few years I've mostly used this blog to help me remember details of past packing parties. That won't help much for 2021 since I didn't even post about those. By God's grace we packed a total of 25,719 boxes between a week in August, 2021 and another week in September, 2021.<p></p><p>In the six months since then we/I have been waffling back and forth about what our packing for 2022 will hold. Compared to the past few years we have very few items in hand to pack for this fall. In 2020 and in 2021 God provided in advance a lot of our major anchor items for the boxes, and that gave us confidence to push ahead despite the challenges of the pandemic. So far, though, we haven't seen that provision in 2022.</p><p>Truthfully, 2021 was a struggle with a lot of spiritual battles that put me on the losing side. I unsuccessfully fought wars with envy, fear, irrational anger, and a host of other personal sins that dragged me down and caused dissension and turmoil that has lasted for more than half a year. </p><p>This year we only have about 3/4 of the storage space we had last year. Our storage container next to the church where we hold our packing events had to be moved because of construction and that construction makes it impossible for us to use the space we'd previously used for work days and packing. </p><p>With this trifecta of team issues, lack of storage, and lack of items we've been waffling about how many boxes to even try to pack this year. For me it's been a yo-yo effect. At first I thought we should only try to do one week of packing with two trucks--possibly 10,000 boxes. Our prayer team continued to pray, however, and when I attended our Area Coordinators' Planning Meeting in February we were singing the song "Oceans" and I sensed God telling me we should pack 19,000 boxes in 2022.</p><p>The next day we had a team meeting via Zoom and when I told the team about my impressions for packing 19,000 boxes at our packing event I didn't sense much enthusiasm. But we kept praying.</p><p>Then a week later I found a possible lead on a large quantity of anchor items that would allow us to come closer to packing that 19,000 number. Unfortunately, weeks have gone by and I have yet to confirm the availability of those items and whether I can purchase them at a reasonable price.</p><p>Maybe I didn't hear God clearly?</p><p>Then world events started to unravel with war in Ukraine and I began to fear rising delivery prices and increased costs for items to purchase. Still, we have no confirmation about items or whether we can find additional storage if we need it. </p><p>Last week's sermon was about being obedient to God so we can see Him work. I immediately thought of that goal of 19,000 boxes. Do I/we just need to be obedient? We have almost 20,000 of the basic items but still need those anchor items and fillers. </p><p>Lately I keep listening (and trying to sing along) to the song "Jireh, You are enough...Forever enough. Always enough. More than enough." I believe the truth and the more I sing it the more I am reminded of its truth. Jehovah Jireh, God our provider, is able to provide what we need for 10,000 boxes or 19,000 boxes--enough items, enough volunteers, enough wisdom--for whatever He wants us to pack.</p><p>More than enough. </p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-64415935409952693032021-07-18T10:27:00.000-07:002021-07-18T10:27:36.224-07:00Opening The Door<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A7hau8Pregc/YPRb-Y60UzI/AAAAAAAAOuQ/oP3N4gKUdWAWd7225OaeojWGn0ZqMnyrACPcBGAsYHg/s4032/IMG_6492.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A7hau8Pregc/YPRb-Y60UzI/AAAAAAAAOuQ/oP3N4gKUdWAWd7225OaeojWGn0ZqMnyrACPcBGAsYHg/s320/IMG_6492.HEIC" /></a></div><p></p><p>Four months without a blog post? What has my life come to? Mostly, it's come to a lot of the same old stuff including truck deliveries and moving stuff from one spot to another and watching God answer prayer for our Operation Christmas Child team. Moving stuff around gets old and doesn't seem very blog-worthy but watching God answer prayer is something else and I really should write those answers down more often, if only for my own benefit.</p><p>But today I want to talk about something else. I want to reminisce about answered prayer from decades ago that spills over into the 'now'. It may not be a coincidence that this morning's sermon talked about discipling the next generation. </p><p>This sermon came just days after a little reunion that took place at a local restaurant on Wednesday night. We were blessed to have dinner with three couples and one spouse in each of those couples was part of the senior high youth group Jim and I 'led' (I use that term loosely here) during the first years of our marriage. </p><p>Let me just say that first year of marriage was one of the hardest, if not THE hardest, years of my life. Married just nine days after my college graduation at age 21, I struggled to get my bearings as a wife. As a couple. And I struggled in my new job as a floor nurse on an orthopedic/neurosurgery floor at a local hospital. I felt ill equipped, constantly failing, and perpetually exhausted.</p><p>And into my mess came a gaggle of teenagers. They were only 4-6 years younger than I. I had no wisdom for them. I was spiritually drier than I've ever been for most of that year. But God opened a door. </p><p>Jim and I rented a little home (which, by the way, we still live in 47 years later.) Did I mention it was little? But those kids didn't care. They just wanted a place to get together and enjoy each other's company. Many days or nights there were spontaneous knocks on the door. I didn't have the gift of hospitality and I still don't. But those kids didn't care. They didn't care that all I served them were bags of potato chips and commercially made french onion dip. More often than not that dip got ground into our beautiful '70s orange carpet.</p><p>They just kept knocking. </p><p>I was spiritually dry. And empty. And woefully lacking in maturity and wisdom. And as non-Martha-Stewart as the day is long. </p><p>But I kept opening the door. And they kept building community.</p><p>Fast forward to this Wednesday night in the restaurant. Those kids are now all retirement age but they shared how much those few short years meant in their lives. Their memories of the retreats we attended together and the pranks they pulled and the joy of community are vivid and remembered with fondness. They talked about churches they attend and ministries they are part of and the lives they've lived in the grace of God. Not perfectly, but still filled with grace. And, really, that's what discipling involves--sharing together in His grace. </p><p>A few decades later I did a stint of thirteen years of teaching Sunday school to middle schoolers. I hope there was some discipling going on there also. And how do you ever really measure the effect of teaching the word of God to kids who are so embroiled in adolescent angst that they can barely even listen? </p><p>You don't. But you just keep showing up and opening the door to God's word. You listen. You pray. And you hope that someday maybe one of those verses you paid them to memorize (yes, I PAID them) will make a difference when they need it. </p><p>One of those former students became a successful youth leader in a large church. And two of them became drag queens. I'm not sure about each of them but God knows. </p><p>And He keeps opening the door. </p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-28352830748661437182021-03-06T15:09:00.000-08:002021-03-06T15:09:07.751-08:00God meets our needs in strange ways, too. God meets our needs--for me, for you. <p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Y8IiKtfJgBs/YEPo_WK4CKI/AAAAAAAAOos/PbIic-qQInsnNfYjToHF6FCr4v3QX32KwCLcBGAsYHQ/IMG_7405.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Y8IiKtfJgBs/YEPo_WK4CKI/AAAAAAAAOos/PbIic-qQInsnNfYjToHF6FCr4v3QX32KwCLcBGAsYHQ/w240-h320/IMG_7405.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">I regularly pray God will meet every financial need of Samaritan's Purse and that no ministry will be left undone for lack of funds. This fervent prayer comes partly from my angst about not seeing the $9 shipping donation for every box we pack at our large Operations Christmas Child packing parties. Last year, for example, we packed 22,697 boxes. The full shipping donation for those would be $204,273. But we didn't see that full contribution. Instead, as far as I know, we had about $11,500 donated for shipping. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Not. Nearly. Enough.</span></div></div><p></p><p>I also regularly pray for God to tell us clearly if He wants us to scale back and pack fewer boxes (say maybe 3000) so we can send the entire shipping donation. Somehow, though, He keeps providing all these items and we just keep packing. </p><p>Still, I pray both these prayers over and over and over.</p><p>I try to think of every way possible to get more funds for shipping these boxes. I've sold things at consignment stores. My husband and I give all we can on a monthly basis. I've done an online fundraiser through Samaritan's Purse each year that has raised as much as $1000 but, truthfully, most of my social media contacts are people who already pack shoeboxes themselves.</p><p>Back in the late 1990s when eBay was pretty new I sold items there that I found at yard sales--mostly books and vintage toys. And I did pretty well with all proceeds going to various mission projects. But then eBay became flooded with so many items and fees were charged for listing items each week. If the items didn't sell you could actually lose money.</p><p>Over the past few years of yard sale trips I collected some things I thought might earn some money, and when I cleaned out my spare room after the holidays I decided it was time to try again on eBay. To my excitement I found proceeds of my sales on eBay could go directly to Samaritan's Purse and, if they did, I wouldn't have to pay eBay fees. I also discovered eBay now only charges the fee when the item sells (probably had to do that to compete with Facebook marketplace and other platforms.) It was also easier to list the items than it used to be.</p><p>In the past two months I sold about 20 items and Samaritan's Purse will receive a donation of $1200. It doesn't seem like much compared to $204,273, and it goes into Samaritan's Purse's general fund. But I am pretending it's a way to help with shipping. </p><p>The thing is--I pretty much depleted my stock of anything salable. Only a few items remain that I keep trying to sell.</p><p>Fast forward to this week when I heard about several Dr. Seuss books being removed from publication. That led me to pull down the attic staircase and trudge up into that cold storage to check the two boxes of children's books that are left there. These are the ones my daughters didn't want for our grandchildren--the really old and beat up ones. I have a terrible time parting with old books or these would be gone too.</p><p>One copy paper box held old Dr. Seuss books. These are ones I bought at yard sales--probably for no more than .25 each--decades ago when my kids were small. And, voila!--I found two of those now out-of-print books--"If I Ran The Zoo" and "To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street."</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NXGdM0tNsCA/YEPpmYBwDaI/AAAAAAAAOo8/1JmCZeJ2NXIBEf8uH8Rax2QAAbEbCKk_ACLcBGAsYHQ/IMG_7412.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NXGdM0tNsCA/YEPpmYBwDaI/AAAAAAAAOo8/1JmCZeJ2NXIBEf8uH8Rax2QAAbEbCKk_ACLcBGAsYHQ/IMG_7412.jpeg" width="180" /></a></div><br />So I listed them on eBay. One of the auctions was shut down pretty quickly for "objectionable material" so I relisted it. Later that afternoon I heard about the title of another book "McElligot's Pool". Another search in the attic and I found that one and listed it, too. Trouble is, I made a misspelling in the title and added an extra 't'--spelling it "McElligott's Pool" and eBay would not let me change the title in the listing. This makes it more difficult for people to find it in a search. I was so upset with myself! <p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a-oOxaWAdtY/YEPpr3FTG0I/AAAAAAAAOpA/RGsZ1YQOWk0EEP92RENoqQ9K_oSIZ_iugCLcBGAsYHQ/IMG_7426.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a-oOxaWAdtY/YEPpr3FTG0I/AAAAAAAAOpA/RGsZ1YQOWk0EEP92RENoqQ9K_oSIZ_iugCLcBGAsYHQ/IMG_7426.jpeg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>By that night (well, actually, 3:00 am the next morning since I couldn't sleep and kept checking it) the auction on "If I Ran The Zoo" was up to $510! And "...Mulberry Street" was up to $85...while the misspelled "McElligot's Pool" actually had some bids and was up to $81! </p><p>I grabbed a few hours of sleep and when I woke at 8:00 am I had emails telling me the first two auctions had been taken down for "objectionable material". Now I had a dilemma. Should I try relisting them? I decided to relist them at a lower fixed price instead of an auction, hoping they would sell before the listings could be removed. And, success--"If I Ran The Zoo" sold for $150 and "...Mulberry Street" for $69.99 immediately. I've been kicking myself since then thinking I should have asked a higher price but I just wanted them to be sold quickly without auctions being removed. </p><p>The auction for the last book kept going. I think maybe that misspelling was providential. It was more difficult for buyers to find the book but also more difficult for eBay 'checkers' to find. </p><p>I just finished watching the bidding play out to the final second...AND the winning bid was $190.50. Thank you, Lord, for that misspelling error, my failure to purge the attic of all those old books, and a well-timed Dr. Seuss craze. Now, if only I'd tried to put the other two books at a higher price...</p><p>Still, that's $410.49 for shipping I didn't have last week. </p><p>God meets our needs in strange ways, too. God meets our needs--for me, for you!</p><p><br /></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-37889534584446280092021-03-03T22:43:00.001-08:002021-03-03T22:43:51.466-08:00What I Learned from the Peppa Pig Play House<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xa5IGXeflxs/X9t-d7HxB-I/AAAAAAAAOJw/Fxg47pYX0_sH0jA_iZkc6C6jX9MfF9GfwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/6qdUtN%2525VSZGM5gQkJ6ktWQ.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xa5IGXeflxs/X9t-d7HxB-I/AAAAAAAAOJw/Fxg47pYX0_sH0jA_iZkc6C6jX9MfF9GfwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/6qdUtN%2525VSZGM5gQkJ6ktWQ.jpg" /></a></div><div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="ecm0bbzt hv4rvrfc ihqw7lf3 dati1w0a" data-ad-comet-preview="message" data-ad-preview="message" id="jsc_c_cfq" style="font-family: inherit; padding: 4px 16px 16px;"><div class="j83agx80 cbu4d94t ew0dbk1b irj2b8pg" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: -5px; margin-top: -5px;"><div class="qzhwtbm6 knvmm38d" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql oi732d6d ik7dh3pa fgxwclzu a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d9wwppkn fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" color="var(--primary-text)" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Originally Written: November, 2020 </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; white-space: pre-wrap;">This might be long but God has taught me a lot in the past few days through this crazy toy. It started on Wednesday when I got an email giving me the age and gift desires for a 2-year-old foster child to 'adopt' for Christmas (NOT the child, just the gifts!) </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was SO excited to read she wanted the Peppa Pig Fancy Family Home because I just happened to know it was 50% off (only 29.99) at Target AND I had a $40 coupon to use there. I reasoned I could get nice gifts for this child and spend virtually nothing. (Not a very giving attitude, as God was to convict me later) The thing was--the toy was OUT OF STOCK at Target. No matter how often I checked, it was out of stock. </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; white-space: pre-wrap;">So...I did more shopping (I shop like hunters hunt) and got a less spectacular more babyish Peppa Pig model at Kohl's and spent my $40 coupon getting this child other gifts at Target. But God wouldn't let me stop thinking about that Peppa Pig house. I found a similar one at Walmart for $55.50 (almost twice as much) and God kept telling me to be generous and get this child what she wanted. So I ordered it on Thursday.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"> BUT I couldn't stop looking and on Friday I found a more spectacular one with 5 Peppa figures instead of 3 for a one-day sale on Amazon. It was regularly 79.99 but reduced for ONE DAY to $55.99. It seemed nicer than the Walmart one and that's what returns are for. So I ordered that one, too. This morning I was thanking God for revealing my miserly tendencies and helping me invest more than I wanted to invest in that toy. BUT I couldn't stop looking. This morning I just had to check the Target site once more and it showed they had 'limited quantities' of the $29.99 toy at Target in Erie. Well, I buzzed up there and there were TWO on the shelf. I nearly bought them both, but I restrained myself and bought one. </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; white-space: pre-wrap;">So...now I have one Peppa Pig Fancy Family Home and TWO MORE (plus another model) on the way to me. Wouldn't it be funny if I ended up keeping the most expensive one after all? Meanwhile, God has taught me that I might need to open up my fists once in a while and buy something at regular price for a good cause. He's revealed some pockets of greed and dissatisfaction I didn't want to see. And He helped me buy a lot more gifts for this little peanut than I'd originally planned. Not a bad return for 4 days of shopping. And, hey, if I keep the $29.99 one I will have saved enough to pack another Operation Christmas Child shoebox online. 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QEGROVScwlU/X1vfUNQWnKI/AAAAAAAAL2Y/GuCT4lSDzKsNcm5Pdy_lKi_VjSK-9cD8gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/fullsizeoutput_34ea.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1240" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QEGROVScwlU/X1vfUNQWnKI/AAAAAAAAL2Y/GuCT4lSDzKsNcm5Pdy_lKi_VjSK-9cD8gCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/fullsizeoutput_34ea.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>"All this abundance that we have provided for building...comes from your hand and is all your own." 1 Chronicles 29:16</p><p>I'm not sure 2020 will be known in most circles as a year of abundance but it certainly has been that for our Operation Christmas Child team here in Northwestern PA.</p><p>By God's grace He provided almost all the items we needed to pack 22,000 boxes before the pandemic hit. Had it not been for that it might have been easy to say we'd skip our large shoebox packing party for 2020--our 12th year. But with God's provision so evident we KNEW (and kept reminding one another) that He wanted these boxes to be packed.</p><p>It was that assurance that kept us going despite roadblocks along the way. We lost our storage space and had to move most of our items with just a few weeks' notice. On the day we met with the church pastor to confirm plans for our September packing party the governor of PA limited indoor gatherings to no more than 25 people. We knew then we'd have to shift gears to make this packing party happen.</p><p>But God went before us to open new doors and happen it did! Granted, we could only have fewer than 25 people practicing social distancing to pack. Only 5-10 people packed at a time at individual stations while others folded boxes, stocked items, or dealt with the mountains of cardboard. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ecVds0WOQLM/X1vjyuVyuQI/AAAAAAAAL2o/fhR-54ZAA7M1s51bbvdeMm5yO1fCVShMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/qj9KMdLFQG6m5wa%252Ba3jrQg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ecVds0WOQLM/X1vjyuVyuQI/AAAAAAAAL2o/fhR-54ZAA7M1s51bbvdeMm5yO1fCVShMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/qj9KMdLFQG6m5wa%252Ba3jrQg.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cYYONBYNyLY/X1vjykrgZVI/AAAAAAAAL2k/VhdILJb3KuUmKFcswnhzmG5xClOAdiwuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/VIHZOarkQ4GibpQCPTMlQQ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cYYONBYNyLY/X1vjykrgZVI/AAAAAAAAL2k/VhdILJb3KuUmKFcswnhzmG5xClOAdiwuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/VIHZOarkQ4GibpQCPTMlQQ.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dEn4kQa6ldM/X1vjy0ueI4I/AAAAAAAAL2s/09mlFF4kC-M-J317Xu1X10RSI0lcF02fQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/yo9ohSeaQU%252BOy%2525SpTPLaHg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dEn4kQa6ldM/X1vjy0ueI4I/AAAAAAAAL2s/09mlFF4kC-M-J317Xu1X10RSI0lcF02fQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/yo9ohSeaQU%252BOy%2525SpTPLaHg.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>We packed one truck in August with a total of 5499 boxes in 3 days and today we finished filling 3 more trucks with another 17,198 boxes and it only took us 5 days this time!</p><p>As I look back over my journal at prayer requests through these past months I see how God answered us so clearly step by step. We prayed about items to purchase last October and November and God gave us direction. We prayed about a source for balls and whether to even purchase them and God answered (we bought all the wholesaler had so don't even ask me where we got them--lol.)</p><p>We prayed over deliveries and trucks and volunteers and God provided in every way at just the right times. </p><p>We hated not being able to involve the whole community this year but we still prayed to make an impact in the lives of people on "this side of the box." And wouldn't you know it--on one night of packing a sweet woman wandered in looking for Celebrate Recovery. It's no longer held at the church but God provided another volunteer there who was packing (the only few hours she was there this week) who was able to offer support to this woman as they packed boxes and promised to take her to a meeting. I'm telling you--pandemic or not--God is ALWAYS up to something! </p><p>Packing was easier and quicker than we imagined possible with so few people. And today, before noon, Donna folded the LAST box. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k7U7EuF6zz8/X1vkGhFjX5I/AAAAAAAAL28/4leYQdmblK8sBFCGGM5ClYIzP2-YmpyBACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/WeCM3nKJQcyhZRYtz%25251SiA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k7U7EuF6zz8/X1vkGhFjX5I/AAAAAAAAL28/4leYQdmblK8sBFCGGM5ClYIzP2-YmpyBACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/WeCM3nKJQcyhZRYtz%25251SiA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>After all these months, we filled the last box that was sent. I even found one extra at home from 2 years ago and we filled that one, too.</p><p>Since we cleaned each day as we went it was a breeze to get everything stored back in our container. We even had the time and energy for the core packing party team to debrief a bit and celebrate. Something that usually has to wait for a few weeks until we recover.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dv6QAxH39uY/X1vkp3Ze9MI/AAAAAAAAL3I/-LcQzhCfsLIwL2aIGgpmzvu_cROSPZc4wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/fullsizeoutput_34fa.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1584" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dv6QAxH39uY/X1vkp3Ze9MI/AAAAAAAAL3I/-LcQzhCfsLIwL2aIGgpmzvu_cROSPZc4wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/fullsizeoutput_34fa.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p>With this our 12th year of packing parties we just crossed the quarter million mark. This makes a total of 256,126 gospel opportunities packed in a dozen years. </p><p>Our theme verse for this 2020 Peculiar Pandemic Packing Party was from Nehemiah 2:18 "Rise up and build!" It's no coincidence I'm sure that my morning Bible reading was in 1 Chronicles 29--David's prayer as he prepared for his son to build a temple to the Lord. Verse 16 reads "O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own." </p><p>I was able to read that with my team today as we thanked God for His provision for every step and for every box. Great is His faithfulness! </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-83928815974344557912020-09-06T04:47:00.001-07:002020-09-06T04:47:18.524-07:00Not Feasible<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aUdCxxz-UMk/X1TIed-9V-I/AAAAAAAAL1s/VxR-KvH-MFw6s7M5UnkECpCQgQ-ySDH7ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/QtfskrDiSVyIZSfPoLM3MA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aUdCxxz-UMk/X1TIed-9V-I/AAAAAAAAL1s/VxR-KvH-MFw6s7M5UnkECpCQgQ-ySDH7ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/QtfskrDiSVyIZSfPoLM3MA.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>I am so glad we don't serve a God of the feasible.</p><p>On Friday and Saturday we had our packing party core team doing setup for this week's packing of Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. By God's grace we were able to complete setup in record time so we began packing boxes. Praise God we have 2,040 in the truck already!</p><p>In the midst of the day of packing I had a little conversation with a young man who is experiencing our packing for the first time. He's a family friend of one of our team members and drove 5.5 hours to come work with us. He asked me what our goal was for the number of shoeboxes to pack this week and when I told him it's 17,000 he answered, "That's not feasible!"</p><p>His words have been rolling around in my head so I looked up the definition of the word 'feasible' and it's "possible to do easily or conveniently."</p><p>Well, by that definition pretty much anything in our Operation Christmas Child world is not feasible because not much of it is easy or convenient.</p><p>This morning I'm thinking how glad I am we don't serve a God of the feasible. </p><p>Is it feasible that God would provide almost all the items we needed to pack 22,000 boxes before the pandemic hit? </p><p>Is it feasible that one casual contact by a team member would result in a donor going online to search out Operation Christmas Child and make contact with our regional office so he could donate a truckload of fillers? </p><p>Is it feasible that a man I barely know would drive across the state with a truck full of clothing items to donate?</p><p>Is it feasible that one team member could singlehandedly find and purchase more than 13,000 Beanie Babies this year?</p><p>Is it feasible that one team member also could put together 22,000 plus school packs in her home?</p><p>Is it feasible that another team member completed 6000 jump ropes and sorted and stored countless bins of clothing?</p><p>Is it feasible that one team member secured and financed the storage of two truckloads full of items? </p><p>Is it feasible that a small team of 18 members (only 10 or so able to be active year-round and most of them over the age of 60) would be able to orchestrate the packing of 22,000 shoeboxes in 6 days in one small area with only 20 people at a time in the midst of a global pandemic?</p><p>The answer is a resounding "NO". This young man saw the truth. None of this is feasible.</p><p>BUT our God is not a God of the feasible. Our God is a God of the impossible. And we stand on tiptoe to see Him do it again. </p><p>ps--this cute bear is our mascot for this 2020 Pandemic Packing Party and he is reminding us to "Rise up and build!"</p><p style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><br /></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-59172398327810314802020-08-25T18:29:00.000-07:002020-08-25T18:29:58.859-07:00The Little Things<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eNE2u6zOA-Q/X0WyXJmEvQI/AAAAAAAALto/0iEyc331K-w48hPZePRyyzAvl_dV2Ce1gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/fullsizeoutput_3465.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1612" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eNE2u6zOA-Q/X0WyXJmEvQI/AAAAAAAALto/0iEyc331K-w48hPZePRyyzAvl_dV2Ce1gCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/fullsizeoutput_3465.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sometimes we feel prayer should be reserved for really crucial things like world peace. But God tells us over and over again in His word to pray about everything and to "cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Honestly, most of my prayers are for pretty small specific things--things that may seem trivial--like a better price on balls for our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes or for good weather and timing for deliveries or for just the right volunteers to come at just the right times to get our boxes packed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For the last eight months or so this little miracle is one of the little things I've been praying for. I'm not sure I agree with the term 'pregnancy loss' because I know none of these little ones who go to heaven without drawing a breath on earth are lost in terms of eternity. They are experiencing life forever, yet their earthly parents are left with the loss of the joy of knowing them here. And so, by this definition, my daughter has experienced more loss over the past several years. Not one to dwell on her sorrow, though, she moved on beyond the miscarriages and we rejoiced last Christmas when she shared the joyous news that God had blessed them with yet another pregnancy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The prayers moved from the generalized prayer for the blessing of a healthy baby to more specific prayers as the pregnancy advanced. Our daughter and son-in-law did not want to learn the gender of their baby before the birth. And though the health of this baby was her primary concern there were other wishes she had for this labor and delivery. She wanted less medical intervention if possible and a chance to move around more during labor. She chose a midwife as her health provider.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As her due date of August 11 came and went in this hot summer she kept her eyes on the goal. Rather than having her labor induced she chose to wait beyond week 40. And then beyond week 41. It was decided her labor would be induced on August 23rd if she did not begin labor before then.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Meanwhile we kept praying. I was praying specifically that this labor and delivery would be a memorial stone in her family's walk of fatih--a time when they would see God's goodness in new ways. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Though I kept praying her contractions would begin, for some reason I felt sure her labor would not begin until the 23rd. And, truthfully, I felt a bit guilty for that. Did it mean I lacked faith God would work? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On Saturday we traveled to our daughter's home to stay with our two-year-old grandson, Sam. Early Sunday morning we prayed together before Jen and Jeremy left for the hospital. In this COVID world we knew we wouldn't see them until they brought their baby home.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">News was sparse through the day but we kept praying as the hours wore on. I got several messages and one said she was able to have intermittent monitoring for only 15 minutes per hour so she could move around. A definite answer to a specific prayer. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Finally, at 10:30 that night Jen called to say her baby was safely here. A girl. Our first granddaughter. And they named her Mabel Irene after her great-grandmothers. I was excited to hear how God answered another specific little prayer. After rupturing her membranes in the morning, Jen's labor progressed naturally with no medication needed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now I'll continue my daily specific prayers for this sweet miracle baby and for my three other grandchildren--that each will know how much God loves him or her and respond to that love by surrendering themselves to a lifelong relationship with Him. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">No prayer could be more crucial. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-1037209688493556932020-08-12T15:05:00.000-07:002020-08-12T15:05:38.346-07:00Day 3--They're Off, You see!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wDTJmaOYwYA/XzRi2AD4mjI/AAAAAAAALAQ/jV3yFZElIaAB0ikbKiUdZTC0CC11ojjWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/ZA8g9o9yTiasxhCjkT4fig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wDTJmaOYwYA/XzRi2AD4mjI/AAAAAAAALAQ/jV3yFZElIaAB0ikbKiUdZTC0CC11ojjWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/ZA8g9o9yTiasxhCjkT4fig.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Day 3--and by God's grace we were done at 10:30 am! After cleanup we prayed around the truck for the children who will receive these boxes.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Packing so many boxes with a group of only 15 or fewer people at individual tables is something we never would have considered doing if it were not for COVID. And I had no idea how it would work. But our team actually loved it. In general there was less stress and it was more efficient in terms of time than our usual assembly packing party.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I figured each person packed about 250 boxes in a seven hour day and I'm pretty sure that's way more than the average person packed in a day by walking a large circuit around the inside of the church. And we know these boxes were well-packed, also. That's a relief for sure.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At the same time, we realize we are losing the sense of community and the chance to interact with so many people at our large packing party. We mourn that loss, but we're grateful God provided this way for us to continue to bless children around the world. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SN5v2M7P3ng/XzRkgbfKlBI/AAAAAAAALAw/5M1g4Qpb3Yo98uONLIlAaZQql3Mw2RbgACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/8heJS1nXSQ2RKS4tL9udWA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SN5v2M7P3ng/XzRkgbfKlBI/AAAAAAAALAw/5M1g4Qpb3Yo98uONLIlAaZQql3Mw2RbgACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/8heJS1nXSQ2RKS4tL9udWA.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Each person packed at a socially distanced station and packed only 6-8 boxes at a time with their supplies on the other side of the table so they didn't have to move much. This helped with efficiency.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rwi-g_77wc4/XzRkgLhS2UI/AAAAAAAALAs/KxAxGZuF-0MZ4IJKhKw3uxoKBqpxAEIlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/LdfWPDZPSoyrS1Rv126U4A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rwi-g_77wc4/XzRkgLhS2UI/AAAAAAAALAs/KxAxGZuF-0MZ4IJKhKw3uxoKBqpxAEIlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/LdfWPDZPSoyrS1Rv126U4A.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We had a list on each station so the packers knew what to put into each of these pre-planned boxes. While this was going on, we had three team members combining miscellaneous items for boxes for boys and girls ages 2-4. These trusted team members had a good grasp of all that was available and could hand pick the items that worked best together to make the best use of resources. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pVIhs99cSiQ/XzRkhSJYZZI/AAAAAAAALA4/MfJTrrc9XaASekFkeRRdq9I_NyjXKaCZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/WxmNQmPmQNKomFTwhn4uWg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pVIhs99cSiQ/XzRkhSJYZZI/AAAAAAAALA4/MfJTrrc9XaASekFkeRRdq9I_NyjXKaCZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/WxmNQmPmQNKomFTwhn4uWg.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Another reason things worked so well is that team members were self-directed. Those who were not at packing stations quickly noticed tasked that needed to be done to make things run more efficiently. Ed, who I dubbed "the sock guy" quickly started opening the plastic bags containing two pairs of socks so the individual pairs would be ready for packing. This was something we couldn't do in advance because many items were 'buried' in storage and unaccessible. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Other team members took on tasks like breaking down boxes or stocking tables with supplies. In our debrief at the end of this session we discussed ways to make those tasks official jobs for volunteers in September. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E-dYcMJWR-0/XzRkgfT6sbI/AAAAAAAALA0/a7iOou0RpmYZFnYgmwK0X4xqL3m4l4_nwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Dsh6dPHnRyODadDM0rAnmw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E-dYcMJWR-0/XzRkgfT6sbI/AAAAAAAALA0/a7iOou0RpmYZFnYgmwK0X4xqL3m4l4_nwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Dsh6dPHnRyODadDM0rAnmw.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sadly, we could have put 6 more cartons on the truck. My math was wrong when I ordered boxes. For some reason I thought 5400 would fill the 350 cartons on the truck but it actually takes 5600 to fill 350 cartons with 16 boxes each. They sent me 5500 boxes, thankfully, but since one carton only had 49 boxes our total when every single box was packed was 5499. And how did we know one carton only had 49 boxes you ask? Only ONE carton of boxes had the boxes counted. Just ONE--because a team member took them home, folded them, and arranged them in rows of 5 and came out with an odd stack of 4 at the end. And we were missing only ONE box. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I wish I'd ordered more boxes...and if I'd known how fast it would go we could have ordered even MORE boxes and a second truck. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Still...the truck was just pulled and there are now 5499 gospel opportunities on the way to Charlotte. And...we'll be back to pack more in a few weeks so stay tuned. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-60803979772584701882020-08-11T14:40:00.000-07:002020-08-11T14:40:06.932-07:00Pressing On in Day 2<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OPcY2R1oWK4/XzMOk7TnGPI/AAAAAAAAK_s/7Rtix6TjRREW6Fbo-GlotzRD4ljed6w7gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/G7bzaCuQSj%252B49l3Ydw3Q7g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OPcY2R1oWK4/XzMOk7TnGPI/AAAAAAAAK_s/7Rtix6TjRREW6Fbo-GlotzRD4ljed6w7gCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/G7bzaCuQSj%252B49l3Ydw3Q7g.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Pressing on to Day 2 of our 2020 packing. Yes, we had to compress the cardboard in the dumpster, and we were pressing on in other ways also.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The truck was moved first thing this morning. That was a relief! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Once again we had 13-15 people working at any time throughout the day. There were usually 4-5 people folding boxes while 7-9 packed boxes. Since we want to pack another three trucks full of boxes in September and/or October we're trying to figure out if there's any way we can have more people working at any one time. We'd need more space to stay socially distanced and then we'd need at least 1 or 2 more people carbonizing boxes and stacking them in the truck. Maybe it's simpler to just stick with this number and pack over the space of more days? So many questions!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Several families who are used to coming to pack together are disappointed this has been an 'adults only' affair this year. It's another COVID casualty. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We ended the day with 4,024 boxes on the truck. There are 810 packed boxes at my house waiting for transport to the truck. That means we have fewer than 700 boxes to pack tomorrow to get the truck filled. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We'll keep pressing on! </div><p></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-1121684346933678962020-08-10T18:21:00.000-07:002020-08-10T18:21:43.577-07:00Packing At A Distance<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hOHuGIcFwuM/XzHv45d__CI/AAAAAAAAK_c/HW3cM8XV6OYnkE1NaN9cc4x2RskduIFkwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/OySuxJ%2525fToySER9fymJYqg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hOHuGIcFwuM/XzHv45d__CI/AAAAAAAAK_c/HW3cM8XV6OYnkE1NaN9cc4x2RskduIFkwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/OySuxJ%2525fToySER9fymJYqg.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2020--a year of forced change. So many things are different and our 12th annual Operation Christmas Child packing party is no exception. We had to cancel our large community-wide event in September since our governor declared we could have no indoor gatherings of more than 25 people. But, because God blessed us with nearly all our items in advance of the pandemic we believe He wants us to get these boxes packed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So we are in our first week of packing with the goal of filling our first truck this week. I made an error in calculations when I ordered our boxes. I thought 5400 boxes would fill a truck but it turns out a full truck of 350 cartons will accommodate 5600 boxes. We actually received 110 cartons of boxes which should give us 5500 total--we'll see how that works out.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We planned as well as we could and invited just a short list of people to come and pack. Today we had 15 at the most. We have 9 individual tables as stations for people to pack boxes and then have a few people folding boxes (socially distanced) in one corner and a cartonizing area in the opposite corner</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My goal was to pack 1200 boxes per day but today, by God's grace, we completed over 1700. If we continue at this rate we could be done by Wednesday. We'll see.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The big glitch today came with the placement of the truck. We were there waiting for the truck but were in the gym at the back of the church. Apparently the driver came to the front office and they just had him place the truck in the front parking lot where we'd normally place it for our large packing party. The problem is we are working only out of the gym and need to take the cartons out the side door--quite a distance from where the truck is parked in the front. The guys improvised today by loading the cartons in a pick-up truck and driving it to the truck in the front. Not very efficient--especially on a day when the temperature reached 89 degrees.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We're praying the truck will get moved tomorrow so loading the cartons will be easier. Meanwhile I'm praising God for so many answers to prayer...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Even at a distance. </div><p></p>Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-72204386269637536242020-07-16T04:26:00.000-07:002020-07-16T04:26:17.414-07:00This I Know<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KzHsurKof7s/XxA1sl1ohSI/AAAAAAAAK9U/5W5bJCmNGSMZX1JPQeOn6aXcKTn5HB-eQCPcBGAsYHg/s1600/62779_1642505383707_324858_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="720" height="212" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KzHsurKof7s/XxA1sl1ohSI/AAAAAAAAK9U/5W5bJCmNGSMZX1JPQeOn6aXcKTn5HB-eQCPcBGAsYHg/s320/62779_1642505383707_324858_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
This picture is from one of our earliest packing parties--2009 or 2010. Life was different then in many ways. 2020 is not the same as 2010. This I know.<br />
<br />
But God is the same in 2020 as He was in 2010. The God who provided miraculously for us then can do the same for us now. This I know.<br />
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In 2010 a whole community of hundreds of people came together to pack 12,670 boxes resulting in many blessings. In 2020 a whole community of hundreds of people cannot come together to pack our goal of 22,000 Operation Christmas Child boxes. This I know.<br />
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Our gracious God provided almost all the items we need to pack 22,000 shoeboxes before this pandemic hit. It was an 'unprecedented' (can I say I have grown to hate that word) gift from a God who loves children around the world and wants them to know He loves them. This I know.<br />
<br />
I need to concentrate on what I know because there is so much I don't know right now. We have been praying for months about how to get these boxes packed this year. A few months ago we thought we had a contingency plan that would allow us to pack one truck of boxes in August, two trucks in September, and one in October--but we couldn't get permission to use the church facility for extra days.<br />
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Yesterday Pam and Patti from our team met with Pastor Scott to get guidelines for how our packing party could be executed this year, based on our county staying in the "green zone" which would allow a group of 250 socially distanced persons in the building with masks, gloves, and frequent sanitizing.<br />
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Not more than two hours after that meeting Governor Wolf announced the following:<br />
<div class="article__paragraph article__paragraph--left" id="W6R22NPPMNAB5A2O5IVKW4NK3A" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "Benton Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.8rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.013em; line-height: 3rem; margin-bottom: 16px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Events and gatherings must adhere to these gathering limitations:</span></div>
<div class="ad-observer" id="InContent_Center_W6R22NPPMNAB5A2O5IVKW4NK3A" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Benton Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2;">
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<ul class="article__unordered-list" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Benton Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.8rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.013em; line-height: 3rem; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 60px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px 0px 0px 36px; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2;">
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Indoor events and gatherings of more than 25 persons are prohibited.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
So...we are back to working out a plan that involves no more than 25 people packing boxes at one time. We need to revisit the possibility of using just our team and a very few others to pack these boxes over several different weeks.<br />
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How will this work? I don't know.<br />
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We are going to pray about it and ask you to join us and we are going to expect God to answer in ways we can't begin to imagine.<br />
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Because our omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God is not surprised by any of this. He has a plan and will lead us step by step. Or, in my case, may be dragging me by the scruff of my neck as I, his stupid sheep, prefer to sit baaaaaing in the mud. Despite everything He loves me. And this I know.Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-44355457803131260382020-06-25T20:41:00.000-07:002020-06-25T20:41:27.384-07:00Our Eyes Are On You<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Yes--I have been out of the blogging world for a season. No--we have not canceled our Operation Christmas Child packing party for 2020.<br />
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Despite COVID-19 and the disappearance of normal life God has continued to bless us with amazing donations of items. When I last wrote on March 18th we'd just received a huge donation of filler items.<br />
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Then, just a week and a half later, we welcomed this 15' long vehicle full of donations from a fellow Operation Christmas Child shoebox packer in the Allentown, PA area. He'd had these bags in his warehouse for many years and never got them sorted. So he decided to bring them to us.<br />
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The thing is, we weren't able to assemble as a team during those early weeks of the pandemic. A couple other teams members and I took turns taking home multiple bags--many of them falling apart--and sorting the contents. That sorting took a full three months to complete, and we had to discard a number of items. But in the end we salvaged more than 10,000 usable items that will bless children.<br />
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On the 3rd Wednesdays in May and June we held a modified packing party work day. Not the public one we'd normally enjoy but one just for 10 team members with social distancing and masks.<br />
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God had us prepared for this before we even knew it was coming. We'd already decided to make only about 6,000 jump ropes this year and one couple on our team--Myron and Patti--completed all of those singlehandedly. Pam had already determined she wanted to pack all the school packs herself in her home so we didn't have that task to complete.<br />
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The lack of church rummage sales and garage sales is no problem this year because Ellen has been driving to other states to pick up beanie babies she's been purchasing on Facebook marketplace. We're just a few hundred shy of having enough for 22,000 boxes and it's only June!<br />
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In the middle of this the warehouse where the bulk of our items were stored was sold and we were given two months to move all those pallets of treasures. God answered prayer and provided another option for us.<br />
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We believe God's blessed us with enough items to pack 22,000 boxes to bless 22,000 children BUT we have no idea how they are going to get packed. How many people will we be able to have at our packing party at one time in September? How can we pack more efficiently or start earlier to accomplish the goal?<br />
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We considered doing a modified packing party to pack one truck full in August, then two trucks in September, then one more truck in October but the church where we hold the packing party wasn't able to give us the space for those extra days. <br />
<br />
I thought about approaching other churches to see if we could find somewhere else to pack in August and/or October but several team members did not want to do that.<br />
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So...now we wait. Actually, I've been sleeping better than usual and have the peace of knowing there's not really anything I can do right now. We have no way of knowing how to make plans at this point.<br />
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But we continue to reassure ourselves that God would not have given us all these unprecedented donations and supplied all our needs in advance of this pandemic if He did not want 22,000 children to be blessed with filled shoeboxes. We have no plan, but He does. That we know.<br />
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We echo the prayer of Jehoshaphat when he faced battle against a huge enemy army, "We do not know what to do but our eyes are on you."<br />
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<br />Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-46777744899664407362020-03-18T15:52:00.002-07:002020-03-18T15:52:31.458-07:00A Corona of Miracles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Webster's second definition of corona is "something suggesting a crown" and the shoebox miracles we've experienced over the past few weeks have been a crown of new life.<br />
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Doubts about our team and our packing party are nothing new. As I look back over old journals I see that pattern repeated over and over again as the years go by. It's a constant battle, but over the past few months that battle's taken a new direction that made us go to concentrated prayer.<br />
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God has answered recently with several affirmations that are astonishing to me. I've seen God work in amazing ways so many times. I guess I should be used to His goodness, yet I still find it mind-blowing that the God of the UNIVERSE stoops to hear and answer our prayers.<br />
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The first miracle came in the form of confirmation about storage--a very pressing issue. Our Central Drop-Off Team Leader, Kit, has been a blessing in so many ways. She has unique connections in our community and she uses them, by God's grace, "for such a time as this." One of her connections is with the owners of a warehouse who are donating space to us for the second year. At our team meeting two weeks ago Kit told the story of how she and her husband took these owners (one of whom is a prominent Erie realtor and developer) to dinner to thank them for the use of their space. She talked extensively to them about Operation Christmas Child (she's passionate, after all) and told them she understands that if the warehouse is sold we will need to move our pallets of items. Kit reports that prominent developer looked her in the eye and said, "You will always have a place for your stuff." What an amazing God-given assurance.<br />
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Then...a couple of weeks ago another team member, Ellen, who's a tenacious pursuer of beanie babies and often takes road trips a few hours away to purchase huge lots, went on a whim to a sale at a local warehouse. There were lots of items there that were suitable for shoeboxes, but the prices were too high so Ellen left empty handed. On her way out the owner asked, "Couldn't you find anything?" and Ellen explained about our Operation Christmas Child packing party and told him we are looking for items that are priced very low. David, the owner, gave her his card and encouraged her to come back at the end of the sale, but he also said he might have other sales in the future. Ellen didn't really think it was worth making the long drive back to his warehouse. She never gave him her contact information and figured it was a dead end.<br />
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Imagine our surprise two weeks later when I got an email from our regional office saying that a warehouse owner had contacted them and was looking for someone in Erie from OCC to come pick up a donation. I was in shock, because normally when I talk to someone about Operation Christmas Child they can't even remember the correct name of the organization. This guy managed to do the research and track down the regional office.<br />
<br />
Well, I called Ellen and Ellen called Dave (the warehouse owner) and set up a time to meet him a few days later at his warehouse. I made sure Ellen explained to him that we couldn't receipt him. If he wanted a receipt we'd have to refer him back to the regional office so he could donate directly to Operation Christmas Child. Amazingly, Dave wasn't concerned about a receipt. Ellen asked if I thought we should both drive our vans to the warehouse and I said, "Yes, in faith, let's take two vehicles and pray God will fill them.<br />
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When we got there Dave took us into the warehouse that was filled with cartons of beautiful filler items. He'd owned a business that supplied items to schools for the students to purchase for their families at Christmas or for other occasions. Remember how we prayed God would fill our two vans? Well, instead, Dave gave us each some sheets of fluorescent green stickers and told us to put a sticker on any cartons we could use! Our jaws dropped and we set to work putting stickers on cartons of balls and jewelry and so many other neat items.<br />
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We made arrangements to come back with a truck this Tuesday to get everything. God allowed us to borrow a truck, provided faithful Myron (husband of a team member) to drive it, and enough volunteers to go to load the items and then go to the church to sort them. And the church was gracious enough to allow us to use their space even though they are closed because of COVID-19.<br />
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Our sorting team was small, we sat far away from each other, and we washed our hands often. But these miracles were worth the time it took to sort them. Six hours later we had almost everything sorted and recorded. In the end we stored over 28,600 beautiful filler items--over 2,300 balls, several thousand pieces of nice boxed jewelry, toy cars, and glider planes. There are sunglasses and flashlights and slinkies and novelty pens.<br />
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And in addition to all those filler items there were thousands of the pencils we've been praying for. We've prayed for 18,000. We still have one more box of pencils left to count but so far we've counted 6,940 of them!<br />
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Today we had another work day with a small team and filled 2,500 water bottles with crayons, pens, pencils, toothbrushes, erasers, and sharpeners. We only have 972 more left to fill.<br />
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And...speaking of filling...we're filled with praise for our awesome God who knows exactly when we need a crown of miracles and showers us with His favor. And we thank God for you who pray along with us and praise God beside us as they unfold.Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-90984141442936526172020-02-29T04:39:00.001-08:002020-02-29T04:39:49.737-08:00Weaning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"Spirit of God descend upon my heart. Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move." This hymn is stuck in my head these days and I've been thinking a lot about weaning.<br />
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I have three little grandsons who have all been weaned in the past few months. Each of them took a different route to that weaning and a different time schedule. Two of them did this pretty much on their own without a lot of fuss. Ah, but the other--he held on for a long time. He did not want to be weaned and it took some special tricks to get the job done.<br />
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I fear my heart is in that 'hard to wean' category. I cling so firmly to things of this earth--not so much to possessions but to achievement, to trying to earn my way to heaven (an impossibility, I know) and to my addiction for approval. I've been praying about that and I think God may be answering my prayers in ways I don't even fully recognize.<br />
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Psalm 131:1-2 "O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me."<br />
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The notes in my ESV study Bible point out the psalmist is saying that like a weaned child is content to just be in his mother's presence the psalmist is content to just be with God even when there are things he wishes God would explain that he can't understand.<br />
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The psalmist says he doesn't occupy himself with what he can't figure out. He just rests in God's presence.<br />
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I guess babies and children who are not weaned often have an ulterior motive when snuggling into their mothers' chests. Just being near her mother makes her root around and look for the milk mommy can give her.<br />
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Am I like that with God? Am I always just looking for His provision and not His presence? That's a heavy thought but one I don't want to turn away from. <br />
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And I'm sensing another weaning that may be happening. One that makes me really uncomfortable because I hate change. I mean, I've only lived in two houses my entire life--the one I grew up in and the one we've lived in for all of our 45 years of marriage. I've lived in the same community all my life. I've attended only two churches and it took a clear act of God to move me out of the first one after 56 years. And I've been doing this Operation Christmas Child ministry since 1995.<br />
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I always thought I would pack shoeboxes until I died. And maybe I will. But what if God has some other plan for me in His kingdom? Am I willing to trust Him and move on if He calls in a different direction?<br />
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"Spirit of God descend upon my heart. Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move."Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-71135957235139337262020-02-17T13:27:00.002-08:002020-02-17T20:09:19.228-08:00Burning Question<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The burning question for my year has been: How do you discern between God's leading and the enemy's work of discouragement? When God intentionally reduced Gideon's army to only 300 God was merciful enough to give Gideon really clear guidance about that (I mean, AFTER the fleece incident--lol) But when you're constantly praying for guidance and get these zingers and God doesn't write His will on the wall for you, then it's challenging to know where those zingers come from and whether they have meaning.<br />
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This picture is from our packing party in 2010. That was our second packing party and we packed 12,600 boxes that year. Samaritan's Purse even sent a crew to film it. There were about 500 volunteers there that day. Lots of help. At that time the packing party got a lot of support from Grace Church and many volunteers came from Grace. It also got a lot of support from OCC. We'd actually had the first packing party in 2009 in response to a direct invitation from OCC so that made sense. <br />
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Now, almost 10 years later, things look much different. The packing party is not directly supported by Grace Church. They are gracious to offer us the use of their building, which is a HUGE investment, and they provide us with a storage container next to the church and a dumpster for our use the week of the packing party. I'm so grateful for these, believe me. But there is no direct effort to recruit volunteers from those Grace attendees, and despite doing all we could to recruit from the community we had fewer than 300 volunteers on the Saturday packing day this year. <br />
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And, little by little, I've been getting the message that maybe OCC would rather we didn't do this packing party either. This year there have been several reminders that packing parties are not the function of our area teams. And of course there's always the issue we've had of not seeing the $9 shipping donation for each of our boxes. So, if you don't have support from a church or from an OCC area team, then you're left with the option of organizing your packing party with an independent team. And that's fine--I mean, with God, even ONE is a majority. But that's the rub--are we "with God"?<br />
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I am constantly praying for God's guidance about whether to continue this large packing party. Year by year this is my prayer and the prayer of my team. Because, believe me, the LAST thing I want to do is attempt something this huge outside of the favor of the Lord. <br />
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So now I'm back to the question of guidance. Our storage container and extra warehouse space are full of items God has already provided and the beanie babies are literally raining in. I think it's safe to say God wants us to go ahead with this 2020 packing party. At least that makes sense to me. <br />
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But is He trying to tell us something for the future? Sometimes I wish God's guidance came in ways that were easier to discern. I'm pretty sure ending our large packing party will not result in more churches and groups being contacted or more team participation. Maybe I'm wrong about that, though. <br />
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Only God knows, and I really wish He would tell me. <br />
PS--When I wrote this I completely forgot about the dream I had last night. I woke this morning from a dream in which we had our packing party in the basement fellowship hall of the church that used to be our central drop-off. I couldn't get an accurate total of the boxes we'd packed because each carton had a different number of boxes and no one had properly recorded the numbers. I did know we were WAY below our goal and had tons of items left over. I kept trying to find someone to see if we could leave everything out and pack boxes the next day but I couldn't find anyone to ask. When I got back to the fellowship hall they were setting up for a craft fair. I woke up with a sense of doom and failure. And that was just the start of the day.<br />
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<br />Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9068129434437598534.post-19564851161844159142020-01-25T22:23:00.001-08:002020-01-25T22:23:34.951-08:00Hands and Feet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I can't sleep. And I don't have anything Operation Christmas Child shoebox related to write about at the moment.<br />
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So let me share a little pet peeve of mine. Oh, believe me, I can be the queen of peeves and they're the only pets I have so sometimes I hang onto them pretty tight.<br />
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This one's just a little one but it has to do with what I call Christianese. Sometimes it seems we followers of Christ have our own language. It must seem like a secret code to those who aren't part of the group.<br />
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Phrases like "I feel led to share..." or "I'm praying a hedge of protection..." sound just a wee bit strange to the uninitiated. I mean, there's nothing wrong with those phrases. They just sound odd when you try to communicate the meaning.<br />
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Anyway, one that bothers me a little is when we're planning to do something good (in Christianese we call it ministry) or have done something good we say we are "the hands and feet of Jesus." <br />
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Really? My feeble attempt to help my brother (there's another phrase) makes my hands and/or feet synonymous with those nail-pierced ones of Jesus? I don't think so. Jesus doesn't need my help, of course, but because He loves me and is merciful He invites me to come alongside Him in the good He does in the world. But I still don't think my availability makes my hands and feet worthy of comparison to His.<br />
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So it's one of those phrases that kind of makes me cringe a bit. Nothing like the hurt in my heart when I hear a fellow believer misuse God's name. But that's another story.<br />
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And...I'm thinking right now the best use of my hands would be to get them off the computer keys and maybe over my mouth.Kathy Schrieferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00966286289968421252noreply@blogger.com1